Public Safety & Mission Software
Traffic & Infrastructure Monitoring Software
Software for signals, sensors, cameras, and the data they produce.
What this covers
Transportation and public works departments run growing networks of signals, sensors, cameras, and connected devices. HQT builds the software that collects, stores, and presents that data and integrates it with operations and planning systems.
Typical activities
- Data collection from traffic signal controllers, counters, and environmental sensors
- Time-series storage and dashboards for operations centers
- Integration with work order and asset management systems
- Video and camera management integration, with privacy controls
- Alerting for outages and threshold events
- Data sharing with regional partners and the public
What you receive
A data platform for infrastructure telemetry, dashboards, integrations, and documentation.
Considerations for public agencies
Connected infrastructure expands the attack surface. Network segmentation and device security are part of every design, and camera data is handled under adopted privacy policies.
Conditions that usually prompt this work
- You learn about a dark or flashing intersection from a resident call or a police radio rather than from a system.
- Controllers log high resolution event data that nobody retrieves before the buffer overwrites it.
- Retiming is scheduled by the age of the timing plan rather than by evidence, and nobody can show what changed afterward.
- Detector health is unknown, so approaches sit on recall without anyone deciding that.
- Counts for safety analysis, grant applications, and development review come from short manual studies while permanent equipment sits idle.
- Signal, count, and weather data each sit in a separate vendor portal, and combining them means exporting spreadsheets by hand.
- A federally funded ITS project is on your program and you need architecture and systems engineering documentation for it.
How this fits the systems you already run
A monitoring platform reads from field devices and from centers you already operate. Timing, coordination, and operator commands stay in the central signal system or ATMS. Hold that boundary through design review: read paths to controllers and sensors are the default, and any command path is scoped, tested, and approved on its own.
Field device interfaces are usually specified against the NTCIP standards, including NTCIP 1202 for actuated signal controllers, NTCIP 1203 for dynamic message signs, and NTCIP 1204 for environmental sensor stations. Standard object polling covers device status, while high resolution event logs are often retrieved by a vendor specific mechanism, so confirm the method for each controller make and firmware version. Exchange with a state DOT traffic management center or a regional partner generally uses TMDD. Intersection and asset identifiers should come from the records your GIS and traffic engineering staff already maintain, so signal events, counts, and repair history join without a new numbering scheme.
Where these projects go wrong
Synchronize clocks across controllers and servers first, because event based performance measures are meaningless when timestamps drift. Retain the raw events rather than only the derived measures, so a measure can be recomputed when its definition changes and an engineer can trace a number back to what the controller logged. The common failures follow from skipping those two steps.
- Coverage described as system wide when only a few instrumented corridors report, with no measure labeled by how many devices reported.
- Alerts that fire on every detector fault, so a dark intersection lands in the same folder as routine noise.
- Polling intervals set for a demonstration rather than for the field communications and cellular data plans you actually have.
- A device inventory that never reconciles to the field, so measures are computed for detectors that were removed and missed for cabinets that were rebuilt.
- Faults raised in the platform instead of the work order system maintenance crews already use, leaving a second queue nobody works.
What to require in the solicitation, and how to check the result
- A Protocol Requirements List and Requirements Traceability Matrix for each claimed NTCIP standard published in systems engineering format, submitted with the proposal.
- Agency ownership of raw device data and derived measures, a documented export format for both, and delivery of the full history at termination without an added charge.
- Programmatic access to your own event and count data without per call or per export fees.
- Acceptance measured on a live corridor over a defined period against a stated data completeness threshold, not on a demonstration using sample data.
- Security documentation covering where the platform sits relative to the signal network, how controller and camera credentials are held, who patches what, and how vulnerabilities are reported.
If federal highway funds are involved, settle early whether the work is an ITS project under 23 CFR Part 940, and put the resulting architecture and systems engineering work in the scope rather than discovering it after award.
Record a baseline before go live: the share of devices returning complete data each day, and the time between an outage starting and staff knowing about it. Measured only afterward, they compare to nothing.
Working with HQT on this
HQT scopes this kind of work as a fixed-price or time-and-materials engagement with a written statement of work, named staff, and a defined acceptance process. We are candid about what we can take on and prefer a well-run project to an oversized one. Contact us to discuss a requirement, a draft scope, or an upcoming solicitation.
Frequently asked questions
Does traffic monitoring software replace our central signal system?
No. A monitoring platform collects and presents data from controllers, detectors, and sensors, while timing plans, coordination, and operator commands stay in the central signal system or ATMS you already run. Keeping monitoring separate from control narrows the security review and limits what a platform outage can affect. If a project does propose a command path from the new system, scope, test, and approve it on its own terms.
Will our existing traffic signal controllers support automated performance measures?
It depends on whether the controller firmware logs high resolution event data, how much of it the controller can store, and whether communications are good enough to retrieve it before it is overwritten. Event logging is a firmware feature rather than something the controller hardware standards guarantee, so support varies by make, model, and firmware release. Start with an inventory of makes, models, firmware versions, and communications paths, because that inventory usually decides which corridors can be instrumented now and which need field work first.
Who owns the data in a hosted traffic monitoring platform?
Whatever the contract says, which is why it has to be written down rather than assumed. Ask for agency ownership of both raw device data and derived measures, a documented export format for each, and delivery of the full history at termination at no added charge. Address programmatic access to your own data as well, since per call or per export fees can make routine analysis and any later transition to another vendor expensive.
Do traffic camera feeds create public records and retention obligations?
In many jurisdictions, video that is retained becomes a record subject to state retention schedules and public records law, which is one reason some agencies operate monitoring cameras as live view only and do not record. Retention periods, redaction duties, and disclosure exemptions vary by state and by the purpose of the camera, so the decision belongs with your records officer and counsel before the system is configured. Write the policy first, then configure the software to enforce it.
Does federal funding change how we procure an ITS data project?
It can. Under 23 CFR Part 940, ITS projects funded with highway trust fund money must conform to the applicable regional ITS architecture and be developed using a systems engineering analysis scaled to the project. Whether a particular monitoring or data platform counts as an ITS project is worth confirming with your state DOT or the FHWA division office, because the answer shapes both the scope and the schedule.